By Zik Gbemre

I have often repeated severally that no foreigner can effectively and efficiently develop our Nigerian country for us, and indeed the entire Africa. That onerous task, no matter how challenging it might seem, only belongs to us as African, and can best be done by us. And that these foreign developed societies of America, Europe and China, are not really interested or after the development of Nigeria and Africa. And I will keep singing this song of advocacy until the message and awareness sinks into the hearts of African leaders, so that they will reappraise/review and be very mindful of their diplomatic relationship with these foreign developed super powers. In other words, it is high time our political leaders stop making excuses and start using their ‘thinking faculties aright’ in developing this nation and get it out of the league of Third World countries in no distant future. This will greatly reduce the sort of discrimination meted out at Nigerians and African in these foreign countries.

That of China vs Africa is the one we find most troubling and of a great concern. For some time now, there has been increasing reports of several cases of blatant racial discrimination against Nigerians and other African countries like Kenya and Uganda, by the citizens of China and its Government-recognized security operatives like their Police, which makes one to wonder what the Federal Government of Nigeria and other African countries’ Governments have done, or are doing to address this obviously ugly trend and dent to the bilateral relations these African countries have with China. In the face of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, China and its Government and people, have openly made it known to the world of how they see, perceive and regard Africans. There have been several articles, reports, online videos and social media posts/materials pointing to this particular issue, which many do not really talk about or consider serious.

Speaking on the subject matter in a recently circulated shot video online, Raymond De Souza of the Human Life International (HLI), who was part of the discussants in the program Candid Africa, spoke on the United States of America (USA) Henry Kissinger Report Policy on Africa’s population control: “This was produced in the 70s when Henry Kissinger was involved with the Government. And it explicitly states, to this day it remains the official policy of the American Government, it has not changed. It may not be implemented by Donald Trump. But it remains the same. The purpose of this policy in Africa, was to reduce the population. So, in giving aids to Africa, it is not to help them with clean water, schooling, and all of that. But it is to encourage contraception and abortion. To shrink the population of Africa because they have enormous mineral resources there. At that time, Henry Kissinger and those involved, wanted to shrink the population of Africa, and MAKE SURE THAT AFRICANS DO NOT DEVELOP AND DO NOT USE THE RESOURCES ON THEMSELVES BECAUSE WE IN THE STATES, WE NEED THEM.

“There were concerted efforts of foreign powers to control the population of Africa. Africa is a huge continent. It could feed thousands of more people. But the policies of the West, especially in Europe – for example, between 1990 and the year 2000, US, Canada and Europe contributed about $6billion in contraceptives. Not to help the people in Africa with clean water, clean food, fight malaria, and so on. Left for us, ‘LET THEM DIE’ – that was the whole idea. So, in our work in the Human Life International (HLI), it is TO MAKE THE AFRICANS AWARE, AND TO DEFEND THEMSELVES AGAINST THE INFLUENCE OF FOREIGN POWERS.”

When asked if it was just the US, or if he believes China is also involved in this reap-off of Africa, Raymond De Souza said: “China is playing a major role because China is buying property in Africa. For example, in Mozambique, which is a Portuguese speaking language country, when Portugal was in charge, they used to export rice. Now, they are importing rice from China because they cannot produce, as their capacity to do so has been wrecked by the Chinese Government that is buying their farms. In fact, almost Third of Mozambique belongs to China. It is the same reality in South Africa. The Chinese are buying property, buying lands in Africa. They send their own Chinese workers. They don’t employ the people of that place. They send their own people to populate and live in those places in Africa.”

It is sad to note that, despite the fact that the Chinese are practically trying to come to take over parts of Africa to secure their economies and future population’s interest to Africa’s detriment, and as our African Governments allow this to happen; the Chinese themselves maltreat Africans in China as if they are rodents and pests that deserve no human face.

Call it a double-edged sword, or another form of neo-colonialism, it is without a doubt that the existing diplomatic and economic relations between China and countries in Africa, which includes Nigeria, is more of a manipulative, discriminative, unbalanced and exploitative-relationship that benefits China more, to the detriment of Africa and its people. While there are some school of thoughts in this regard, but we cannot deny the subject matter as the realities on ground based on the evident facts that are verifiably out there. What is even more disturbing is the way Chinese and Asian citizens are well-treated and accommodated in Africa by Africans, compared to the racist-ridden and despicable way black Africans are treated in China and other Asian countries.

In another well-circulated video-clip of a studio interview of Dr. Umar Johnson, a Clinical/Certified School Psychologist and social activist, he related his personal experience when he visited China and Japan. Johnson noted how blacks (Africans) are not treated well at all in China. In fact, he expressed that, the extent at which racism is practiced ‘openly’ in China and Japan, is quite disturbing. In his word: “At least in the US and in UK, there is a ‘Civil Rights’ culture, so racism is put under and covered. But in comparism, there are certain places you cannot go into in China as a black man. They have signs with ‘No Blacks Allowed’. There are certain nightclubs, certain sections of certain neighbourhoods you cannot live in China as a black man.

“The irony of all of this is that Africa, is rolling out the red-carpet for China and other Asian countries. China are taking over the Caribbean and Africa. They are all in South-Africa. In fact, the Mandarin Chinese language, which is simplified/traditional Chinese, is now officially taught in South-African schools. But the Zulu language, which is one of the official languages in South-Africa, is not given such an attention.” Johnson noted that the Jamaican Government is giving them concessions on lands to build homes, businesses, resorts, schools, and in return they are given the right to own certain lands, waterways, etc. And with the way things are going, Jamaica will soon become the first colony of China. That is the same thing they are doing in Africa… The problem here is that the black political leaders do not have to live with the ‘economic consequences’ of the decisions they make today. China offers these leaders mouth-watering deals, including things like, they will give them millions of dollars after retirement, build them retirement homes, they can even borrow as much money as they can from the Bank of China. But in return, the Chinese folks will tell them they want this and that. The leader will obviously be settled for life by the time they leave office. But what about their nations, their people and their future? They will be struggling for the next 50 to 75 years because of that economic decision of selfish leaders today. That is the problem in Africa and the Caribbean.

“You have to remember that China is overpopulated. So, they are always looking for opportunities outside to dump some of their excess population. Do you know what is sad, Chinese will come to Africa poor, with nothing! And in three years, they are owning two or three major businesses, because what happens is that when the Chinese come, they employ more of their labour, they do not employ the indigenous labour. They are showing up broke, and going back as millionaires,” Dr. Umar Johnson emphasized.

Agreed that a number of African countries have become increasingly drawn to China’s supposed “no-strings attached” development assistance and promises of growth, but while these policies certainly create economic gains for Africa, the vestiges of colonialism evident in this relationship raise questions about the true cost of realizing these benefits. Currently the continent’s largest trading partner, China relies on African markets for a steady flow of natural resources to sustain manufacturing. The African resources China imports are varied, covering everything from oil, to iron ore, timber, and copper. In exchange for broad access to resources, China exports cheap (and also fake/substandard) manufactured goods back to its trading partners, builds much needed infrastructure, provides foreign direct investments, and loans out billions of dollars. In 2014 alone, the value of this trade totaled over $200 billion. Furthermore, over half of China’s foreign aid is distributed in Africa. Though, advocates of this inflow of money claim it spurs development, but if we look carefully, we would see that China’s policies in Africa paint a picture of ‘trade imbalances’ that are handicapping the nations involved, while grossly advantaging China at the expense of the African people.

The bottom line is that the Chinese come here in Nigeria to open up businesses and carry out large scale infrastructural projects, and they are treated with respect. It is therefore expected that they need to treat Nigerians in China with the same respect as human beings. It is only when a Nigerian is found to have broken the laws of China, that such a person should be made to face the music in accordance to acceptable justice. Other than that, Nigerians doing legitimate businesses in China should not be discriminated in any way by the Chinese people and its Security Operatives. There is therefore need for a detail investigation to be made on this racial discrimination prevalence in China against Nigerians. The Nigerian government should learn to stand up firmly to defend its citizens across the world, not only in China.

It is therefore foolishness for Nigerian political leaders and its people to think that the advanced countries will help us to grow our economy. These developed countries know very well that if we become developed like them, we will become an economic threat to them. That is why, despite the fact that the developed countries are seen to preach against racism, segregation, division, anti-sematic, and all kinds of names they give them, they are still the ones practicing these things in high degrees within and outside the countries, especially when dealing with Africans/Nigerians. It is all pretence. Even the American Democrats who preach liberalism, they are just pretending about all of these. The Europeans, Americans and Chinese know the Nigerian weaknesses and they want things to remain as they are with Nigeria. It is left for our African leaders to change the narrative in this regard. Otherwise, the future of Africa will be nothing to write home about.

Zik Gbemre.

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